Litigation with Bodmin Jail

The request was partially successful.

Dear Bodmin Town Council,

Please say whether the council is in a dispute with Bodmin Jail.

Please identify the substance of the dispute.

How much has the council spent on legal fees and other costs?

Is the dispute resolved or ongoing?

Does the council have an estimate of potential future costs?

Yours faithfully,

Philip Kerridge

Dear Peter Martin,
Thank you for the response to my request for information about two major disputes involving our council. Your response is a masterpiece in obfuscation. As a result I am none the wiser about the cost to the council tax payer.

Question 1. I do not want to know about the total staff costs. I want to know about the total cost of the council's carelessness in losing their tow most senior members of staff. This was to include the cost of employing staff to cover (including on costs) and any settlements made to the two senior staff, who are no longer employed. I want to know the total cost, which is spread amongst several people possibly including obtaining additional advice. Therefore this would not be personal information, as I would not be able to calculate a payment to an individual. Some of the costs would be covered under the transparency code. I there fore repeat my request.

Question 2. Are there potential future costs to the council as a result of forthcoming employment tribunals or pay offs/settlements still to be negotiated. Or have the two employees already been to an employment tribunal. Has the council made provision for potential costs/ Yes or No. If yes please add this figure to the total in Question 1.

Question 3

It beggars belief that you are unaware of a report on your website that identifies the strong possibility that senior councillors have been disrespectful to these staff. It is the Staffing and Organisational Review reported to council on 29 December. Perhaps allegations about senior councillors showing a lack of respect are so commonplace on Bodmin Town Council that you found it difficult to identify what I was referring to. Is that your position. If it is not commonplace what other documents/minutes refer to senior councillors showing a lack of respect. No doubt there were discussions and even perhaps disciplinary hearings involving these tow staff. So was the lack of respect shown by senior councillors an issue in their departure?

Thank you for telling me that the council is in dispute with the Jail. Thank you for telling me why. Thank you for telling me that the dispute is ongoing. I assume from this that the council has incurred legal costs as a result of the dispute. I would also assume that the council has resolved to pursue this further. Presumably in the knowledge that there will be a risk of future costs and what those might be. Am I wrong? If so how?

I still don't know what either of these costs might be.

I have attempted to find this information from your website. From your home page I selected documents. I then selected Financial Documents and Information. Not exactly as described in your response but fairly close. Under this the heading returns yields nothing relevant to the Jail. Other financial information yield s nothing relevant. So I assume it must come under precept and budget None of these documents yields the information. No doubt the costs I am interesting in are there, but subsumed under other headings. If I have got this wrong, please explain more clearly. The same applies to your holistic HR service.

I assume the council has told councillors how much has been spent so far in this dispute with the jail/ Mallino. I assume they aware of potential future costs. Or perhaps I'm wrong. Am I? If councillors are unaware of this then I can't believe the council is as well? Or am I wrong again? I repeat my request for the cots already incurred and what the council may have to pay as the dispute continues.

Philip Kerridgde

Yours sincerely,

Philip Kerridge

Dear Peter Martin,

I am requesting an internal review by the council concerning my request for in formation about the dispute with Jail.

You have explained the nature of the litigation with the Jail. You have also confirmed that the dispute continues. Possibly not unconnected with Jail staff standing for election as town councillors.

You have not given me information about the costs incurred so far and the risk of future expenditure as the litigation proceeds. I assume you know the latter and councillors will have been aware of the latter before deciding whether or not to litigate further.

You have only shown me where to look in the accounts for a figure which includes but does not identify your spending in this matter. If I am wrong please explain with more clarity precisely where this information can be sourced from your website.

Yours sincerely,

Philip Kerridge

Peter Martin, Bodmin Town Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Kerridge,
Please see attached a two page letter of acknowledgement in respect of your recent Freedom of Information Requests
Yours sincerely
Peter Martin

show quoted sections

Peter Martin, Bodmin Town Council

1 Attachment

Martyn Dewar left an annotation ()

Messages dated 26 February and 19 March from Bodmin Town Council refer to both this request and another [1]; however they had only been sent to this request.

We have manually re-delivered the messages to both requests and advised Bodmin Town Council on how to avoid this issue re-occurring.

[1] https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/s...

--
Martyn, WhatDoTheyKnow volunteer

Alex Harrod, Bodmin Town Council

1 Attachment

Dear Sir / Madam,
Re the below ICO email, please find attached a response issued on behalf
of Bodmin Town Council.
Kind regards,
Alex Harrod
Community Services Manager / Deputy Town Clerk
Bodmin Town Council
 

From: ICO Casework <[email address]>
Sent: 26 July 2021 15:48
To: Bodmin TIC <[Bodmin Town Council request email]>
Subject: ICO Case Reference: IC-118046-H0M6

 

You don't often get email from [email address]. [1]Learn why this
is important

26 July 2021 

Dear Sir/Madam,

Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA)
Case Reference: IC-118046-H0M6 
Complaint from Peter Kerridge
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/s...
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/l...

The Information Commissioner has received a complaint from the above named
individual who says that they have not received a decision regarding the
internal review they requested on 19 March 2021. The complainant also
asked you to carry out an internal review of your response to his requests
on 24 April 2021. 

The Commissioner considers that a reasonable time for completing an
internal review is 20 working days after the date of the request for
review. 

The maximum amount of time taken should not be more than 40 working days. 
This longer period may be justified if an internal review is complex,
requires consultation with third parties or there is a high volume of
relevant information covered by the request.  There will only occasionally
be legitimate reasons why an extension longer than 40 working days is
needed.

Internal reviews are discussed in the [2]Section 45 Code of Practice.

Our [3]Regulatory Action Policy is published on our website. Significant
or repeated unreasonable delays in dealing with internal reviews will be
monitored by our Enforcement team. In some instances regulatory action may
be necessary.

Action

If it is the case that you have not issued an internal review decision to
the complainant, please do so within 10 working days as the review has
already been delayed. Please copy the ICO into your response. 

If you have already responded to the complainant and believe that your
review should have been received, we recommend you contact them to confirm
receipt, if you have not already done so. 

Yours sincerely,

Ella Cuthbert 
Case Officer 
Information Commissioner's Office

Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire SK9 5AF
T. 0330 414 6670 [4]ico.org.uk [5]twitter.com/iconews
Please consider the environment before printing this email.

For information about what we do with personal data see our privacy notice
at [6]www.ico.org.uk/privacy-notice.

References

Visible links
1. http://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentifica...
2. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk...
3. https://ico.org.uk/media/about-the-ico/d...
4. https://ico.org.uk/
5. https://twitter.com/iconews
6. https://www.ico.org.uk/privacy-notice